Wild Letters is a newsletter about self-exploration and building a right-fit life.
Thank you for being here with me!
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Happy solstice, dear reader!
First up today is my little tradition of creating a “just for fun” to-do list of 3-5 things for each season, and here’s what I’d love to do this summer:
Go swimming at the nearby lake!
Bake with fresh local berries!
Read fun novels in a hammock!
Take the dogs to the beach!
Cook new things with all the fresh herbs that are exploding in my little garden!
If you want to share your own seasonal to-do list of fun things in the comments we can then steal each other’s ideas 😍 (and for my southern hemisphere babes yes indeed I would love to hear what’s on deck for you this winter!)
Next, I’d like to share what you can expect from me in the coming months:
A continuation of my multi-part series that explores how to live amidst the challenges of our time. Part 1 is here, and part 2 is here. It has been wonderful & soothing & thought-provoking to discuss these topics with you in the comments of those essays. Thank you so much for sharing your own stories and ideas and questions with me, and with each other!
Other essays too — about the perfectionism and fear that always seem to come when I start a new project, about the grown-up gap year (!) I’m planning for 2025, about navigating the grief of aging parents, and more.
All our regular monthly features: What’s Working link round-ups, Tiny Biz Letters, and the Rose Thorn Bud podcast (for July’s episode, when Julia is out on maternity leave, I’ll be joined by guest co-host
!)Also in July: I’ll be attempting a thru-hike of the Long Trail, which means that Wild Letters will be on hiatus for two weeks with no new posts on Monday July 15 or Monday July 22. Being able to take this self-employed version of paid time off means so much to me (and is relatively new in my business), and I am just so genuinely grateful to all of you for supporting me here on Substack and making it possible to take a break from writing for two weeks without also taking a big hit to my income.
While I hike my plan is to take lots and lots of notes along the way, and then upon my return I’ll write and share a day-by-day trail journal with you about that whole adventure, similar in style to my two books: How To Be Alone: an 800-mile hike on the Arizona Trail and What We Owe to Ourselves: a 500-mile hike on the Colorado Trail. These forthcoming Long Trail stories will be for paid subscribers only.
Outside of Wild Letters I won’t be offering anything else until September, which is when the second cohort will kick off for my new workshop: How Much Money is Enough? You can join the waitlist right here if you’re interested in that!
Lastly, I’m so excited to share something new that I’ve been making for you:
It’s called Workbooks for the People, and it’s where you can now find all of my digital workbooks. I’m delighted to be offering these workbooks in line with the gift economy going forward, which means that there is no cost for you to download them. You can find them all right here, along with some fun, non-monetary options for reciprocity :)
I hope these workbooks serve you well in your own self-exploration, especially during the two weeks in July when Wild Letters will be on hiatus.
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More soon!
Nic
I absolutely love every freaking thing that you write and I love that you're taking paid time off to go on a long hike! Also, the radical reciprocity options that you listed are so awesome.
I started a tradition many years ago that has been super fun. Almost every Sunday of the year, my husband, one of my best friends, and I go hiking in the Northern Sierras. A few years ago I decided that from mid-May to mid-September, when we get to an alpine lake midway through our hike, we HAVE to jump in. It can be a quick dip if it's freezing or a nice swim, but it's mandatory 😂 Even when the water is freezing (which is most of the time), and everyone is grumbling about having to jump in, it never fails to be the most fun part of our hike.
I love that you are hiking the long trail! It’s something I’d love to try when my son is older and I can scale back my work hours. I live just 20 miles from an access trail so I’ve hiked a few miles of it. Aside, I love that you are considering an adult gap year- I think most of us just assume that if we don’t get to do this as a pre-college kid, it’s off the table for life. But, as I will likely be working until I die, I’m looking at ways to have mini retirements throughout my life when I’m still young and healthy, rather than saving it all for the end of my life.
I hope you have a great hike!